By Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba
Its debt and more debt!
He brings nothing new but debt and more debt, volatile exchange rate, high inflation, poverty and unemployment.
In the last 3 years he has sunk the economy further, and only the mines are smiling.
I feel bad for President Hichilema because looking at the last budgets( 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024), the economy won’t recover, and he is likely going in the 2026 elections with these crises…yet the budget is supposed to be an instrument of development and economic growth.
Instead Dr. Musokotwane’s budget have been rhetorical and deliver no tangible results from the big figures he provides. Take CDF for example, which is their flagship programme, MPS just bought expensive yellow machines that are parked at civic centres for lack of fuel. The absorption capacity remain low, the release have been erratic and CDF has failed to make a dent at local development.
He found an economy with a rebound growth of 4.7% in 2021. He has not scored beyond 2.5% per year despite the high targets he sets every year in his budgets.
This is basically the last budget before we go to elections. Therefore, no matter how optimistic Musokotwane delivers the budget, no matter how many lines of good sounding allocation he provides, his stay at the Ministry of Finance remqin disastrous.
I however wish you well in your budget presentation.